On Saturday night, the Calgary Flames (31-34-8, 70 points) closed out their homestand with a pretty decisive win over the National Hockey League’s worst team. On Monday night, they begin their last road trip of the season with the first of three games against the NHL’s best team, the Colorado Avalanche (48-14-10, 106 points). The Flames have been on a decent little run, schedule-aided as it may be, but they begin the toughest portion of their schedule in Denver.

Today’s broadcast begins at 6:30 p.m. MT on Amazon Prime’s Monday Night Hockey and Sportsnet 960 The Fan.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Blake Coleman – Mikael Backlund – Joel Farabee
Matvei Gridin – Morgan Frost – Matt Coronato
Yegor Sharangovich – Ryan Strome – Victor Olofsson
Brennan Othmann – John Beecher – Adam Klapka

Kevin Bahl – Zach Whitecloud
Olli Maatta – Hunter Brzustewicz
Brayden Pachal – Zayne Parekh

Per Sportsnet’s Derek Wills, sounds like Dustin Wolf starts in net, backed up by Devin Cooley. The projected healthy extras are Tyson Gross, Ryan Lomberg and Martin Pospisil. It looks like Connor Zary and Yan Kuznetsov remain out day-to-day.

The Flames were a bit loose with their puck management on Saturday night and took some unnecessary risks, but they did so against a Vancouver team that’s quite bad. The Canucks come by their last-place position honestly, and the Flames had a strong evening against them on the whole – quibbles with their two-way play aside.

They cannot be as loose with their details against Colorado. If they are, they’re going to get wrecked.

Projected lines via Daily Faceoff:

Gabriel Landeskog – Nathan MacKinnon – Artturi Lehkonen
Valeri Nichushkin – Brock Nelson – Martin Necas
Ross Colton – Nazem Kadri – Logan O’Connor
Parker Kelly – Jack Drury – Joel Kiviranta

Brett Kulak – Cale Makar
Devon Toews – Sam Malinski
Josh Manson – Brent Burns

We’re projecting Scott Wedgewood to start in net, backed up by Mackenzie Blackwood. The projected extra skaters are Zakhar Bardakov and Nick Blankenburg.

The Avalanche are, like the Flames, 7-4-1 since the trade deadline. But the Avalanche are a wagon, with a deep, scary lineup. Nathan MacKinnon and Martin Necas have 17 points over the 12 games since the trade deadline. They’re by far the top team in the NHL right now and they’ve added a couple impressive ex-Flames in Nazem Kadri and Brett Kulak.

They’re perhaps the most terrifying opponent in the NHL.

The Flames are without Sam Honzek, Jake Bean, Jonathan Huberdeau, Yan Kuznetsov, Connor Zary and Joel Hanley.

The Avalanche are without Nicolas Roy.

This is the first of three meetings between these teams this season. They’ll meet again in Denver on Apr. 9 and in Calgary on Apr. 14.